The present invention relates to a liquid-cooled ingot mold for the continuous casting of metals, particularly steel.
Depending on the shape of the strand to be produced (i.e., strand dimensions), tube molds are customarily employed for the production of billet, bloom and round castings, and plate molds for the production of slabs.
Regardless of the shape of the strand, the molds are oscillated in the casting direction. In this regard, a sinusoidal movement of the mold is preferred, and the speed of the downward movement of the mold is greater than the strand removal speed, which is generally constant (negative strip).
The frequency and the stroke of the oscillating movement are adapted to the speed of removal of the strand. Thus, for instance, with slab formats of a size of 250 mm.times.2,000 mm and strand removal speeds of 1.3 meters per minute, a frequency of about 100 oscillations per minute with strokes (amplitude of an oscillation) of 4 to 15 mm are customary values. With regard to the frequency, higher oscillation figures have also been proposed. The use thereof has, up to now, failed due to the mass to be moved. For the slab format indicated, the mass to be moved is about 30 tons. In the case of tube molds, such as those used for the production of round strands or rectangular strands in billet or bloom format (100-500 mm diameter or 100.times.100-400.times.400 mm), the mass of the mold is less and is somewhere between 1.3 and 2.5 tons. Here, comparable difficulties are noted when a given height of the frequency of oscillation in the case of small strokes and high strand removal speeds, for instance, 4 meters per minute or more, is to be assured with the retention of the "negative strip" and, therefore, the advanced movement of the mold as compared with the speed of removal of the strand upon the downward stroke.